Grizzly Bear Facts
Bears are built to bite. Their enormous muscles attached to the skill power jaws studded with 42 teeth. Strong enough to bite through a cast iron skillet and with enough force to crush a bowling ball. (View larger version)
- Grizzly bears weigh an average of 800 pounds (363 kg). The male on average is 1.8 times as heavy as the female.
- Grizzly cubs are born blind, toothless, almost hairless and weighing 1 pound (half a kilogram).
- Grizzly bear milk contains up to 33 percent fat, more than that in heavy whipping cream.
- Adult male grizzlies hibernate for as little as several weeks, while females that emerge from dens with cubs can hibernate for as long as 7 months.
- Over winter females can lose about 40% of their bodyweight.
- Adult grizzly males will occasionally kill grizzly bear cubs.
- A grizzly bear’s powerful claws are up to 6
inches (15 centimeters) in length.
- Approximately a third of all grizzly cubs die before reaching the age of two.
- Grizzly bears can easily eat over 100 pounds of salmon in a day.
- The grizzly bear’s sense of smell is seven times better than a bloodhound.
- Grizzly bears have bitten through cast iron skillets.
- A grizzly has the speed to outrun a horse for a short distance.
- Grizzly bears have a muscular hump on the upper back, which helps differentiate them from other bears in the wild.
- A grizzly bear has to eat almost 20,000 calories a day.
- Adult male grizzlies are not social animals. They do not like competition for food or a female’s attention.
- An adult bear can reach speeds of nearly 65 kilometres per hour.
- Today, in the lower 48 United States, only about 1,500 grizzlies remain in less than 2 percent of their former range.
- Adult grizzly bears don't climb trees because they are too big and heavy, but their cubs do. The top of a tree is a safe place for a small cub when danger is nearby.
